1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to customer management terminal equipment suitable for managing information on customers at multiservice stations including retail shops such as department houses, financial institutions such as banks, and gas stations. The present invention also relates to a customer managing method and media for customer management.
2) Description of the Related Art
Recently, in order to provide various types of broad services to customers, systems that manage information on dealings with customers are being introduced in retail shops such as department stores, financial institutions such as banks, vehicle repair shops, or related fields.
In addition to selling goods, some retail shops, for example, are introducing a system (for example, TOMONOKAI, a profit sharing group) where a shop owner registers a customer as a member, saves a reserve fund for the member, and provides a special service beyond the reserve fund.
In such a system, a registered member deposits a fixed amount of money every fixed interval (e.g. each month). At the day of expiration, or a time when money has been completely deposited a predetermined number of times, gift certificates corresponding to the accumulated deposit money plus interest, for example, are given to the member.
The above-described reserve servicing system, for example, is carried out in accordance with the process shown by the schematic diagrams of FIGS. 10 and 11.
Referring to FIG. 10, to apply for a membership for reserve-servicing, a customer fills necessary matters in a prescribed application form 100 and then hands it over to an operator in charge of the reserve servicing.
The operator operates the terminal equipment 101 such as POS (Point-of-Sale) terminals, based on the matters written on the application form 100, to input information (customer's name and reserve servicing) on the customer, assigns a membership number (customer's No.), and registers the customer information and the membership No. into the customer master file 102 within the host 105 including the terminal equipment 101.
Then, a membership card 103, on which a customer identification information (e.g. a membership No.) carried by a customer is hand-written, or a membership card (magnetic card) 103A, on which the information is recorded as magnetic information, is issued.
When a registered member deposits a fixed amount of money at a predetermined interval, the operator, as shown in FIG. 11, operates the keyboard to read the membership No. (customer No.) stored in his membership card 103 (or 103A) in the terminal equipment 101, and then retrieves information regarding customers stored in the customer master file 102 within the host 105 to display the information on the screen 104 of the terminal equipment 101.
Thereafter, when the operator receives money from the customer, the operator executes a certain necessary updating process in accordance with the information displayed on the screen 104. Then the host 105 registers the updated information regarding the customer into the customer master file 102.
This procedure allows the customer to enjoy the above-mentioned reserve servicing.
Some systems, each by which a financial institution such as a bank can offer the time-deposit service to customers, perform the procedure shown by the schematic diagrams in FIGS. 12(a) and 12(b).
In other words, when a customer applies for a time-deposit service, he fills necessary matters in the prescribed application form 110 and then hands it over an operator in charge of the time-deposit servicing.
The operator operates the terminal equipment 111 based on the matters written on the application form 110 to input customer information (information regarding a customer's address and name, and a time deposit service).
Thereafter, the operator completes the bank servicing by preparing and issuing a time deposit deed 112 recording the customer information. Then at the end of the procedure, the customer information is stored into the time-deposit file 113 in the host 114 accommodating the terminal equipment 111. The customer keeps the time deposit deed 112 handed from the operator.
The time deposit is set by the above-procedure. The procedure shown in FIG. 12(b) is performed at the expiration of the time deposit and a cancellation of the same.
That is, the customer shows his time-deposit deed 112 to an operator at a window in a financial institution to apply for the repayment due to the expiration or cancellation of the time deposit.
The operator operates the keyboard to input the information regarding the customer recorded on the deed into the terminal equipment 111 and prepares data regarding the time deposit deed 112 on the screen of the terminal equipment 111.
The data on the screen of the terminal equipment 111 is collated with the content registered in the time deposit file 113 within the host 114. If both contents coincide with each other, the operator executes a routine repaying process.
Such a procedure allows the customer to enjoy the time deposit service.
The institution that provides various kinds of services to customers generally manages the contents of offered services and provides the same on the serviced customers.
Some service stations such as gas stations that provide services for vehicles execute the procedure shown in FIG. 13 to manage the service contents to customers.
Namely a members card 120 in which the customer identification information is recorded, is issued to a customer. When the customer is to be served, the operator reads the customer identification information recorded on the members card 120 using the card information reading unit (e.g. a magnetic card reader) 122 equipped in the terminal equipment 121.
The operator operates the terminal equipment 121 to input the service contents (in this case, e.g. vehicle maintenance and oil exchange information) received by a customer, thus registering the input data into the customer file 123 within the host 124 accomodating the terminal equipment 121. This procedure can manage contents served to the customer.
However, in the reserve servicing systems shown in FIGS. 10 and 12 among the above-described customer information managing means, the customer management information process is performed in such a manner that an operator operates the terminal equipment 101 to input the customer identification information, thus retrieving data recorded in the customer master file 102. Hence there is a disadvantage in that the memory capacity of the customer master file 102 must be increased with an increasing number of customers so that the system maintenance cost is boosted.
In the system that realizes a customer's time-deposit servicing shown in FIGS. 12(a) and 12(b) in a financial institution such as a bank, an operator verifies the customer information regarding the expiration of the time deposit, based on the time-deposit deed 112 brought by the customer and then must re-enter the data written on the time-deposit deed 112 into the terminal equipment 111. Hence, this system burdens the operator with an increased amount of work, thus causing potential erroneous data entry and prolonged the service time at the window.
Moreover, in order to verify the day, time, place, type of services provided previously, and the like, the service content managing means at a multiservice station that provides services for vehicles must retrieve data registered into the customer file 123. As a result, the system construction cost is increased.
It may be considered that information previously serviced is hand-written to record into the members card 120, instead of the customer file 123. However, there is a disadvantage in that the measures may lead to an increase in the service supplier's burden.